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Feb 10 2009 - A desperate South African dad spent four nighttime hours guarding his daughter's police cell in Bellville north of Cape Town - fearing that the frail white girl would be assaulted by cell mates.

Her father Gideon Theron, a local businessman, said he is highly irate about the way his daughter was treated by police officers.

The Independent Police Directorate which oversees police behaviour, has already interviewed her about the ordeal.

Tonia, who works as a financial advisor, was involved in a collision with a police vehicle which was driving alongside them in the adjacent lane when it made a sudden turn into her lane. Her sister Anine, 19, who was a passenger in the car, said Tonia’s car had slid on the wet pavement against the police vehicle and then hit a traffic-light because Tonia had to make a sudden lane-change to try and avoid the police vehicle. The police caused the accident – their driver had been ‘reckless’, said the younger sister.

Tonia, 21, however was immediately arrested by police officials after the accident, claiming that she had to 'sleep off her drunk' and was also forced to sign a confession at the police station by a ‘very belligerent’ police officer.

However, a doctor who was asked by the Bellville police from nearby Karl Bremer Hospital to examine her wrote in his report -- which is part of the court records -- that the girl had been completely sober. A blood test was also taken by the doctor, who moreover, also was heard to scold the police officers for ‘wasting his time’.

While Tonia was still being questioned in the police station office, she was also cursed for wanting to speak in her home language, Afrikaans - one of South Africa's twelve official languages.

Her sister Anine meanwhile had already contacted her father and he immediately rushed to speak to the Bellville police station commander, pleading with him to stop questioning his daughter and to let her go because she hadn’t been drunk, that the doctor’s statement proved it.

"I was greeted with arrogance and deep enmity towards me personally. I feared that I would also be arrested because I kept on pleading to release her'.

He even called a former police director to try and get his help in getting his daughter released, but this made matters even worse: his girl then was locked into a police cell, crowded in with women who had been arrested for a large variety of crimes.

The father then stood himself up in front of his daughter's cell from about ten pm until 2.30am the next morning to keep watch. "I feared that she would be harmed by her cellmates. And I also had to endure the enmity from the police officials all night,' he said. Tonia also said that she was frightened by the other women and had kept herself awake until her release at 3am the next morning. The dad says his daughter was released on a mere $50 bail at 3am, and ordered to appear in court the next morning. Her ‘trial’ was then postponed to 13 March.

“From the doctor's statement, which was inserted in the court documents, it must have become clear to the public prosecutor at once that she had not been drunk at all,” the father said. If the court finds her guilty of drunken driving, she could lose her job and probably not be able to find another job either. The Independent Police Directorate which investigates misbehaviour by the police, has already interviewed Tonia about the incident.http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Suid-Afrika/0,,752-2460_2466075,00.html

also: my story on South African prisons, on the website for the Centre for Violence and Reconciliation (SouthAfrica)

February 10 Tuesday -- Radio 702 reports that only one day before the Pretoria High Court is hearing an application to delay the presidency from announcing the date of the next presidential election, SA's acting president has announced that the next poll will take place on 22 April -- spite of previous promises to the contrary.

Acting-president Motlanthe thus cheated more than 1,5-million South Africans out of their voting rights abroad by announcing the election date only one day before the Pretoria Court would have heard the interdict to stop him.

Once the date has been announced, expat South Africans won’t be able to register as new voters abroad.

Monday’s application by the Freedom Front Plus party to delay the poll-date announcement by Motlanthe was lodged on behalf of South African expat-teacher Willem Richter in the UK – but the Pretoria High Court then delayed its decision to Wednesday. This followed Monday's Pretoria High Court shock-ruling that all registered South Africans living abroad must be given the opportunity to vote at SA's foreign embassies and consulates – as they had been allowed to do in 1994, but not ever since.

Presidency’s ‘assurances’ aren’t worth diddly-squat:

Quintus Pelser, legal council for Richter, also told the Pretoria High court on Monday that he had received "assurances" from the presidency that the proclamation of the election date "was not with government printers". The court ruled that the Electoral Act "limited" the casting of votes to South Africans who were only abroad temporarily, such as civil servants and travellers.It referred the judgement to the Constitutional Court for confirmation.

Today, Motlanthe announced the new presidential poll date would take place on April 22. That’s how scared the ANC leadership is of giving the country's more than 1,5million expats voting rights abroad - who left the country to find work abroad because of the ANC's anti-white hiring laws, and clearly aren't expected to vote for them in this year's election. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2467371,00.html

Handing down judgment on Monday, Acting Judge Piet Ebersohn ruled that the current legislation infringed on the rights of all the South Africans who were living and working abroad.

The court ruled that the electoral act "limited" the casting of votes to people temporarily living abroad. It has now referred the judgment to the Constitutional Court for confirmation on Wednesday.

The judge also ordered the country's Independent Electoral Commission to change its voting procedures so as to allow South Africans living abroad to vote at all its foreign missions.

Speaking outside the court on Monday, Freedom Front Plus spokesman Willie Spies said this was just step one in the process of obtaining voting-rights for South Africans abroad -- the Constitutional Court could still overrule the judgment.

Willem Richter is a 27-year-old South African schoolteacher who is temporarily working in Surrey, UK.

The opposition Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Parties both have also launched a combined, similar application at the High Court – inviting the Freedom Front Plus to also join them in this effort. These parties are all seeking to ‘ensure that South Africans who are temporarily living abroad may cast their vote,’ said Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe.

During the country’s first democratic, multiracial elections in 1994, everyone was able to vote – South Africans abroad were given voting facilities at foreign legations. However since that time, the ANC-regime has dropped this, claiming they ‘did not have the manpower or the facilities to handle polling booths abroad’.

Picture: On December 6 2008, expats in London staged a protest march to the SA embassy in central London, demanding that they be given voting facilities at the embassy.

At the moment only very specific, rather elitist groups such as government employees and their kin; as well as South Africans who can provide proof they have a residence in South Africa and are just on temporary trips for business, holidays or studying, can vote at foreign legations.

The South African government is in a shambles at the moment, with the ruling African National Congress splitting into two factions which are increasingly at war with each other. They voted out the elected president Thabo Mbeki in favour of their party president Jacob Zuma, and the two factions have been at each other’s throats ever since. The acting-president Mothlanthe has also been targetted in a media sex-scandal campaign, and the next presidential election date has not yet been announced.

Due to the fact that South Africans are increasingly leaving the country of their birth, mainly because of the violent crime epidemic, many South Africans were left disenfranchised by the South African voting rules.

Two South African political parties last week had lodged two seperate lawsuits – one in the Constitutional Court and one at the High Court in Cape Town -- to try and obtain voting rights in the forthcoming presidential elections for the country's more than 1,2-million South Africans citizens, mostly whites, who are forced to work abroad due to the poor economic opportunities at home – whites are barred from the entire labour market by law.

This week, a formal application will be submitted to the Constitutional Court on behalf of Willem Richter, pictured left -- a 27-year-old South African schoolteacher who is temporarily working in Surrey, UK -- by the SA opposition party Freedom Front Plus.

And the opposition Democratic Alliance has also launched an application at the High Court – inviting the Freedom Front Plus to also join them in this effort. They are seeking to ‘ensure that South Africans who are temporarily living abroad may cast their vote,’ said Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe.

"According to the current regulations Richter, as well as the majority of South Africans just like him who are living and working abroad, again may not vote in this year's elections," said Dr Pieter Mulder, leader of the FF+ party.

Unconstitutional Electoral Act:

Their urgent application at the Constitutional Court demands that the Electoral Act be declared unconstitutional. “Restrictions placed on expat voters are a purposeful way to exclude their votes, ’ Mulder said. http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/

Both parties had already started lodging requests for adjustments to Independent Electoral Commission’s voting rules for expats with the IEC’s Brigalia Bam. Some ‘minor adjustments’ were then made, said the Freedom Front Plus – but it’s still well-nigh impossible for the vast majority of South African expats to vote at foreign embassies, where polling booths are only being set up for embassy personnel and their relatives.

DA leader Helen Zille said that 'all citizens living abroad should have the opportunity to vote in elections at home, beginning with the 2009 election. The right to vote is enshrined in the Constitution; as such the IEC has a duty to give effect to the right."http://www.da.org.za/?p=1028

The South African Electoral Act now disqualifies large numbers of South Africans from casting their vote only by ‘reason of their geographical location’ – although the Constitution states that "every adult South African citizen" has the right to "vote in elections for any legislative body established in terms of the Constitution", the party leaders said.

Legal precedent suggests that a legal challenge to the Electoral Act could be successful, violence monitor and electoral expert Suzanne de Vos says.

"The Constitutional Court has said that the right to vote is fundamental to democracy, and that this required proper arrangements to be made for its effective exercise," said De Vos.

This meant the legislature and the executive should provide the legal framework, infrastructure and resources for free and fair elections.

"South African citizens who live abroad can argue that their constitutional right to vote is being infringed because the Electoral Act in effect denies them a right to vote.

"If such an application is brought, the government will have to provide solid reasons why these citizens are being denied their right to vote as they will have to show that the limitation of this right is justified in terms of the limitation clause in the Bill of Rights," said De Vos.

Independent Democrat party leader Patricia de Lille said that in the 2003 elections, ‘the government's excuse was that it lacks the resources to accommodate overseas citizens,’ adding that this was"unacceptable", as ‘the same resources that made provision for government officials abroad should and could also be used to facilitate the voting procedure for non-government employees..

Even prisoners and criminals can vote… but not expats…

She said prisoners awaiting trial were allowed to vote, and most certainly other South African citizens who are out of the country should also have this privilege. If South Africans abroad could vote it would 'impact on election results…’

This fact also explains the fact that none of those other political parties which primarily cater for black voters, seem to have any concerns whatsoever about this unconstitutional disenfranchisement of so many top-educated South Africans who now have to work abroad.

The reason for this unconcerned attitude among parties with a mainly black voters’ base, is not hard to guess: most of the expats are whites, and the majority of these ‘whites’ are Afrikaans-speakers: people who by law are also being denied access to the South African job market, because of their paler skin-colour.

Especially the Afrikaners – who have no other homeland – have been handed a double-whammy after the 1994 election – not only are they being forced from the country because being whites. they are not allowed to work in the country of their birth by a vast variety of laws -- but they are also being denied voting rights under the lame excuse that the embassies ‘don’t have the facilities’.

The embassies did however have the facilities during the 1994 elections – so what has changed since then except a very clear plan to bar all whites from the electoral process in South Africa as much as possible? http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/

Library of laws which bar South African whites from the labour market:

The Freedom Front Plus says that Afrikaners are so disenfranchised that they now have basically lost all their civil rights as an ethnic-minority in South Africa.

To obtain an international platform to fight for Afrikaner rights abroad -- the FF+ last year joined UNPO – the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. UNPO has 70 members, which include Australia’s Aboriginals, the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania; Tibetan monks – and now also include the Afrikaners of Southern Africa.

According to the Freedom Front Plus, the inclusion in this international pressure group was one of the parties’ greatest achievement’s to date. “If you look at the situation in South Africa at the moment, it would be unwise for a group such as the Afrikaner not to consider other options, and one of those options is to internationalize our case,” Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder told reporters at a press conference in Pretoria on Monday. UNPO’s membership consists of indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories.

“It is an organisation that fights for the right of the world’s silent voices,” Mulder said.

It has grown from its original 15 founders, to representing almost 70 members worldwide.

Except for minority groupings, it also includes countries that have declared independence and have not been recognised internationally such as Somaliland which is part of Somalia, and Iraq’s Kurdistan.

The organisation lobbies internationally for the civil rights of these communities and countries including at the United Nations and European Parliament. It counts the recognition of Kosovo as one of its successes. Sapa

February 10 Tuesday -- Radio 702 reports that only one day before the Pretoria High Court is hearing an application to delay the presidency from announcing the date of the next presidential election, SA's acting president is going to announce it – in spite of previous promises to the contrary.

Acting-president Motlanthe thus plans to cheat more than 1,5-million South Africans out of their voting rights abroad by announcing the election date only one day before the Pretoria Court would have heard the interdict to stop him.

Once the date has been announced, expat South Africans won’t be able to register as new voters abroad.

Monday’s application by the Freedom Front Plus party to delay the poll-date announcement by Motlanthe was lodged on behalf of South African expat-teacher Willem Richter in the UK – but the Pretoria High Court then delayed its decision to Wednesday. This followed Monday's Pretoria High Court shock-ruling that all registered South Africans living abroad must be given the opportunity to vote at SA's foreign embassies and consulates – as they had been allowed to do in 1994, but not ever since.

Presidency’s ‘assurances’ aren’t worth diddly-squat:

Quintus Pelser, legal council for Richter, also told the Pretoria High court on Monday that he had received "assurances" from the presidency that the proclamation of the election date "was not with government printers". The court ruled that the Electoral Act "limited" the casting of votes to South Africans who were only abroad temporarily, such as civil servants and travellers.It referred the judgement to the Constitutional Court for confirmation.

Today, Talk Radio 702 claims that Motlanthe was all set to make the announcement in parliament at any minute. The ANC leadership is clearly scared of the country's more than 1,5million expats - who left the country to find work abroad because of the ANC's anti-white hiring laws, and aren 't expected to vote for them in this year's election. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2467371,00.html

Handing down judgment on Monday, Acting Judge Piet Ebersohn ruled that the current legislation infringed on the rights of the more than 1,2-million South Africans who were living and working abroad.

The court ruled that the electoral act "limited" the casting of votes to people temporarily living abroad. It has now referred the judgment to the Constitutional Court for confirmation.

The judge also ordered the country's Independent Electoral Commission to change its voting procedures so as to allow South Africans living abroad to vote at all its foreign missions.

Speaking outside the court, Freedom Front Plus spokesman Willie Spies said this was just step one in the process of obtaining voting-rights for South Africans abroad -- the Constitutional Court could still overrule the judgment.

Last week week, a formal application was also submitted to the Constitutional Court on behalf of Willem Richter, pictured above -- a 27-year-old South African schoolteacher who is temporarily working in Surrey, UK. At the same time, the opposition Democratic Allianc also launched a similar application at the High Court – inviting the Freedom Front Plus to also join them in this effort. These parties are seeking to ‘ensure that South Africans who are temporarily living abroad may cast their vote,’ said Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe.

During the country’s first democratic, multiracial elections in 1994, everyone was able to vote – South Africans abroad were given voting facilities at foreign legations. However since that time, the ANC-regime has dropped this, claiming they ‘did not have the manpower or the facilities to handle polling booths abroad’.

Picture: On December 6 2008, expats in London staged a protest march to the SA embassy in central London, demanding that they be given voting facilities at the embassy.

At the moment only very specific, rather elitist groups such as government employees and their kin; as well as South Africans who can provide proof they have a residence in South Africa and are just on temporary trips for business, holidays or studying, can vote at foreign legations.

The South African government is in a shambles at the moment, with the ruling African National Congress splitting into two factions which are increasingly at war with each other. They voted out the elected president Thabo Mbeki in favour of their party president Jacob Zuma, and the two factions have been at each other’s throats ever since. The acting-president Mothlanthe has also been targetted in a media sex-scandal campaign, and the next presidential election date has not yet been announced.

Due to the fact that South Africans are increasingly leaving the country of their birth, mainly because of the violent crime epidemic, many South Africans were left disenfranchised by the South African voting rules.

Two South African political parties last week had lodged two seperate lawsuits – one in the Constitutional Court and one at the High Court in Cape Town -- to try and obtain voting rights in the forthcoming presidential elections for the country's more than 1,2-million South Africans citizens, mostly whites, who are forced to work abroad due to the poor economic opportunities at home – whites are barred from the entire labour market by law.

This week, a formal application will be submitted to the Constitutional Court on behalf of Willem Richter, pictured left -- a 27-year-old South African schoolteacher who is temporarily working in Surrey, UK -- by the SA opposition party Freedom Front Plus.

And the opposition Democratic Alliance has also launched an application at the High Court – inviting the Freedom Front Plus to also join them in this effort. They are seeking to ‘ensure that South Africans who are temporarily living abroad may cast their vote,’ said Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe.

"According to the current regulations Richter, as well as the majority of South Africans just like him who are living and working abroad, again may not vote in this year's elections," said Dr Pieter Mulder, leader of the FF+ party.

Unconstitutional Electoral Act:

Their urgent application at the Constitutional Court demands that the Electoral Act be declared unconstitutional. “Restrictions placed on expat voters are a purposeful way to exclude their votes, ’ Mulder said. http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/

Both parties had already started lodging requests for adjustments to Independent Electoral Commission’s voting rules for expats with the IEC’s Brigalia Bam. Some ‘minor adjustments’ were then made, said the Freedom Front Plus – but it’s still well-nigh impossible for the vast majority of South African expats to vote at foreign embassies, where polling booths are only being set up for embassy personnel and their relatives.

DA leader Helen Zille said that 'all citizens living abroad should have the opportunity to vote in elections at home, beginning with the 2009 election. The right to vote is enshrined in the Constitution; as such the IEC has a duty to give effect to the right."http://www.da.org.za/?p=1028

The South African Electoral Act now disqualifies large numbers of South Africans from casting their vote only by ‘reason of their geographical location’ – although the Constitution states that "every adult South African citizen" has the right to "vote in elections for any legislative body established in terms of the Constitution", the party leaders said.

Legal precedent suggests that a legal challenge to the Electoral Act could be successful, violence monitor and electoral expert Suzanne de Vos says.

"The Constitutional Court has said that the right to vote is fundamental to democracy, and that this required proper arrangements to be made for its effective exercise," said De Vos.

This meant the legislature and the executive should provide the legal framework, infrastructure and resources for free and fair elections.

"South African citizens who live abroad can argue that their constitutional right to vote is being infringed because the Electoral Act in effect denies them a right to vote.

"If such an application is brought, the government will have to provide solid reasons why these citizens are being denied their right to vote as they will have to show that the limitation of this right is justified in terms of the limitation clause in the Bill of Rights," said De Vos.

Independent Democrat party leader Patricia de Lille said that in the 2003 elections, ‘the government's excuse was that it lacks the resources to accommodate overseas citizens,’ adding that this was"unacceptable", as ‘the same resources that made provision for government officials abroad should and could also be used to facilitate the voting procedure for non-government employees..

Even prisoners and criminals can vote… but not expats…

She said prisoners awaiting trial were allowed to vote, and most certainly other South African citizens who are out of the country should also have this privilege. If South Africans abroad could vote it would 'impact on election results…’

This fact also explains the fact that none of those other political parties which primarily cater for black voters, seem to have any concerns whatsoever about this unconstitutional disenfranchisement of so many top-educated South Africans who now have to work abroad.

The reason for this unconcerned attitude among parties with a mainly black voters’ base, is not hard to guess: most of the expats are whites, and the majority of these ‘whites’ are Afrikaans-speakers: people who by law are also being denied access to the South African job market, because of their paler skin-colour.

Especially the Afrikaners – who have no other homeland – have been handed a double-whammy after the 1994 election – not only are they being forced from the country because being whites. they are not allowed to work in the country of their birth by a vast variety of laws -- but they are also being denied voting rights under the lame excuse that the embassies ‘don’t have the facilities’.

The embassies did however have the facilities during the 1994 elections – so what has changed since then except a very clear plan to bar all whites from the electoral process in South Africa as much as possible? http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za/

Library of laws which bar South African whites from the labour market:

The Freedom Front Plus says that Afrikaners are so disenfranchised that they now have basically lost all their civil rights as an ethnic-minority in South Africa.

To obtain an international platform to fight for Afrikaner rights abroad -- the FF+ last year joined UNPO – the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. UNPO has 70 members, which include Australia’s Aboriginals, the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania; Tibetan monks – and now also include the Afrikaners of Southern Africa.

According to the Freedom Front Plus, the inclusion in this international pressure group was one of the parties’ greatest achievement’s to date. “If you look at the situation in South Africa at the moment, it would be unwise for a group such as the Afrikaner not to consider other options, and one of those options is to internationalize our case,” Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder told reporters at a press conference in Pretoria on Monday. UNPO’s membership consists of indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories.

“It is an organisation that fights for the right of the world’s silent voices,” Mulder said.

It has grown from its original 15 founders, to representing almost 70 members worldwide.

Except for minority groupings, it also includes countries that have declared independence and have not been recognised internationally such as Somaliland which is part of Somalia, and Iraq’s Kurdistan.

The organisation lobbies internationally for the civil rights of these communities and countries including at the United Nations and European Parliament. It counts the recognition of Kosovo as one of its successes. Sapa

Feb 10 2009 - Because genuine South African passports can be so easily bought from fraudulent local officials, the UK is imposing visa restrictions from March on all 400,000 South Africans who visit the Commonwealth country each year, it was announced in SA 's parliament.

South Africa's Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula -- whose own department is infamous amongst international crime investigators for its out-of-control fraud -- made her announcement rather dramatically in parliament on Monday – she interrupted a debate.

Following her shock announcement, there was an immediate shout of "It's an indictment!" from the opposition benches in the House. Mapisa-Nqakula replied: "It is an indictment, and I think... all of us should take responsibility for that." She however said nothing about taking responsibility for her own fraudulent officials who have been enriching themselves shamelessly, without her lifting one finger to stop it.

South Africans have never had to apply for travel visa for the UK, even at the height of apartheid. Opposition politicians said it was a sad commentary on the decline of their country: during apartheid, many countries, albeit never the UK, would not allow South Africans to visit them. Yet now, thirteen years after it has ended, endemic government corruption, global criminal networks and South Africa's total lack of control on its own borders have wiped that temporary welcoming smile from the face of foreign authorities.

Mapisa-Nqakula even admitted that there was a problem inside her department -- by citing the UK official’s statement: he had informed her, she said that the UK have "based their decision on its concerns regarding the ease with which non-South Africans can acquire genuine SA travel documents and use them to travel to the UK."

In 2007, 419,000 South Africans travelled to the UK legally, including 168,000 tourists and 46,200 business visitors.They are the fifth largest group of visitors to Britain behind those from the USA, Australia, Canada and Japan. And the largest single group of skilled expats working in the UK also are from South Africa.

Indeed worldwide, immigration officials worldwide have become very wary of South African passports from Indonesia to London.

UK stuck with unwanted people with genuine SA passports:Only a year ago, Mapisa-Nqakula had met her British counterpart John Reid, to discuss Britain's growing concerns about being stuck with unwanted people purporting to be South African. The UK, he told her, 'had a major problem with unwanted foreigners who had South African passports.'

SA Police arrested Mr ‘Matric Examsion’ Phelephe…

Picture: Customs officials worldwide are aware that South African passports, while perfectly genuine, often are issued fraudulently to illegal African migrants, criminals and terrorists, purchased from SA officials at the Home Affairs dept. This passport on the left was genuine, issued to a foreign national, arrested by the SA police when they spotted the name, "Matric Examsion'.

There now are so many genuine South African passports in circulation which were issued by fraudulent South African officials to illegal African migrants, refugees and criminals, that it is beginning to create a major headache for international law enforcement officials.

International investigators say that very few of the SA passports are actually forged - the vast majority are completely genuine, bought from corrupt officials. And these genuine South African passports are in demand among criminal syndicates stretching across the globe. see

Now all South Africans are going to suffer from the criminals inside the Home Affairs office who have been making fortunes out of issuing genuine passports to non-South Africans for years.

The imposition of a visa requirement is set to affect over 400,000 South Africans who visit the United Kingdom each year as tourists, on business, or in transit.

"Abuse of the South African passport remains a serious concern," the British High Commission in Pretoria said in a statement earlier on Monday afternoon."It has been one of the most abused passports detected at UK border posts."

It said South Africans featured "prominently" among passengers being refused entry on arrival in the UK. In the last two years there had also been a significant increase in the number of South Africans working illegally or overstaying their leave to remain in the UK.

The commission said that from March 3, South African passport holders would require a visa in order to visit or transit the UK. However until mid-2009, South Africans who had previously travelled to the UK on their current passport would be exempt from the requirement.

Visas are currently required only for other categories of entrants, including students and people working in the UK. High Commissioner Paul Boateng said they are 'still committed to continuing to welcome South Africans travelling for legitimate reasons to the UK.'

South Africans would now join the nearly 75 percent of the world's population who had to get visas for the UK, he said.

SA a major transit point for terrorists: Athough the statement was downplayed the issue of terrorism, listing it as only one of a number of factors that were weighed up in the visa decision, media have linked the move to fears that South Africa has become a transit point for al-Qaeda operatives to gain entry to Britain.

Associated Press' London office on Monday quoted unnamed "security officials" as saying South Africa had become a new base for terrorist activity.

However Peter Gastrow of the SA Institute for Security Studies downplayed these claims, saying that there has been 'a general hardening of attitudes towards migration in the United Kingdom and some other European countries."

Asked whether South Africa would retaliate with visa requirements for Britons, foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said there was "no such decision by government".

South Africans are the fifth largest group of visitors to Britain behind those from the USA, Australia, Canada and Japan. see

Now all South Africans are going to suffer from the criminals inside the Home Affairs office who have been making fortunes out of issuing genuine South African passports to non-South Africans.

Mapisa-Nqakula actually interrupted a parliamentary debate to rather dramatically inform the assembly that she had just received a 'formal communication from the UK government, ... informing me that... they have now decided to introduce a visa requirement for South African citizens.'

Following her shock announcement, there was a shout of "It's an indictment!" from the opposition benches in the House. Mapisa-Nqakula replied: "It is an indictment, and I think... all of us should take responsibility for that."

The imposition of a visa requirement is set to affect over 400,000 South Africans who visit the United Kingdom each year as tourists, on business, or in transit.

"Abuse of the South African passport remains a serious concern," the British High Commission in Pretoria said in a statement earlier on Monday afternoon. "It has been one of the most abused passports detected at UK border posts."

It said South Africans featured "prominently" among passengers being refused entry on arrival in the UK. In the last two years there had also been a significant increase in the number of South Africans working illegally or overstaying their leave to remain in the UK.

The commission said that from March 3, South African passport holders would require a visa in order to visit or transit the UK. However until mid-2009, South Africans who had previously travelled to the UK on their current passport would be exempt from the requirement.

Visas are currently required only for other categories of entrants, including students and people working in the UK.

High Commissioner Paul Boateng said they are 'still committed to continuing to welcome South Africans travelling for legitimate reasons to the UK.'

South Africans would now join the nearly 75 percent of the world's population who had to get visas for the UK, he said.

Athough the statement downplayed the issue of terrorism, listing it as only one of a number of factors that were weighed up in the visa decision, media have linked the move to fears that South Africa has become a transit point for al-Qaeda operatives to gain entry to Britain. Associated Press' London office on Monday quoted unnamed "security officials" as saying South Africa had become a new base for terrorist activity.

However Peter Gastrow, of the SA Institute for Security Studies, said that there has been 'a general hardening of attitudes towards migration in the United Kingdom and some other European countries." Asked whether South Africa would retaliate with visa requirements for Britons, foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said there was "no such decision by government".

In 2007, 419,000 South Africans travelled to the UK legally, including 168,000 tourists and 46,200 business visitors.

They are the fifth largest group of visitors to Britain behind those from the USA, Australia, Canada and Japan.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '